Grand Prix 2018 United States Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I could have totally borrowed C_A_T’s last years’s writeup as it’s completely applicable to this year’s race. I would but I don’t as I have a ton of respect for our moderator and I owe to the site something new, even if I’m nursing a 40-degrees cold and I’m nursing a hernia. Sorry for the brevity of my article and I hope the race more than make up for it.

America the land of opportunity and excess is the next stop the the F1 circus this year. With a shinny new Justice Kavanaugh in charge of waving the checkered flags (sorry he probably won’t), the few f1 fans left in the room cheer and wait in expectation to see if a nearly crowned leader Lewis Hamilton bagged the title (he probably has already). This put him ahead of Frenchman Alain Prost and tie in number of titles with Argentinean Juan Manuel Fangio. Quite the achievement. Mercedes a class on his field, even if he Ferrari is at least as fast, will see Bottas victorious as soon as the the title is settle. Vettel has singlehandedly managed to derail his own path to a 5th title by making a little too many mistakes.

Let’s hope for a real old fashion show and a mano-a-mano between the 2 4-title champions rather than an anticlimactic “Bottas, Lewis is faster than you” affair like last race.

Gentlemen, start your engines and Make Racing Great Again!

 

[Dartman]

Not slowing for a red flag and driving slowly on an inlap after the chequered flag are two completely different rules the first is safety the second is common sense, the inlap rule is for before the chequered flag, there is enough dotting "I's" and crossing "T's" to fill the rules without adding to them by stating after the flag or providing it doesn't affect other drivers

 

[The Artist.....]

Dartman - but Vettel did slow for the red flag - significantly. The only reason that he received a penalty is that the times that are set for sectors is outrageously slow - particularly so in the wet. Actually, there's more in common between these situations than you would expect; in returning to the pits in a red flag situation, you are required to keep above a particular delta. In returning to the pits at the end of qualifying, you are required to keep below a particular delta.

In both situations, there is a safety aspect, as if a car that was keeping to the delta came across Bottas (or Ocon) on a blind corner, then it could quite easily have caused an accident.

The stewards basically said that because other drivers had been punished for the red flag contravention, that they had no option but to penalise Vettel 3 places. However, for an almost identical infraction (but in reverse), Bottas was not penalised.

Bizarrely, in FP3 in Spa, Bottas almost caused an aeroplane style accident, but was not penalised. Something is wrong when a driver is penalised because they slowed down (but not enough), another driver is not penalised for slowing down too much in contravention of the rules, and another case leads to no action when the direct actions caused a 200mph crash into a wall!

 

[Il_leone]

Vettel actually was accelerating in one of the red flag zones Reason why Bottas and Ocon probably were not punished is because everyone over reacted about Vettel's penalty saying its too harsh so you've ended up making the stewards go soft


Although the reasoning was that neither Bottas or Ocon had driven

"unnecessarily slowly or in a manner to adversely affect any other driver".

Ignoring red flag I think is a far more serious offence

 

[The Artist.....]

Il_leone - to be fair, the whole circuit would be a red flag zone - and we would expect cars to accelerate at some point- but I take your point. The biggest issue is the regulations.

 

[F1Brits_90]

The Artist..... i can get you the footage if you'd like but vettel was complacent & i dont see how on earth you can defend doing 105 mph in the wet under red flag conditions espically after bianchi. Ferrari were wrong to tell vettel "its just gravel' you cant assume the red flag cause as you never know what is around the next corner

Also how come everyone else got back to the pits legally. But vettel couldnt

 

[gethinceri]

Il_leone - to be fair, the whole circuit would be a red flag zone - and we would expect cars to accelerate at some point- but I take your point. The biggest issue is the regulations.

No, the issue is the punishment of transgressing those regulations.
If you transgress you should be punished.

 

[Il_leone]

The Artist..... So if you were Vettel who would you blame

i) your engineer for not giving you enough warning
ii) the stewards for being too harsh
iii) the FIA for making such rules
iv) yourself - which is what the Italian media have done

 

[The Artist.....]

The Artist..... i can get you the footage if you'd like but vettel was complacent & i dont see how on earth you can defend doing 105 mph in the wet under red flag conditions espically after bianchi. Ferrari were wrong to tell vettel "its just gravel' you cant assume the red flag cause as you never know what is around the next corner

Also how come everyone else got back to the pits legally. But vettel couldnt

F1Brits_90

Firstly, it was 100km/h (about 60 mph) which is very slow for an F1 car.
Secondly, Vettel was one of the few cars on the track at the time
Thirdly, this is the third time this season that a driver has transgressed these regulations.

gethinceri - i'd actually argue that the problem here is the regulation rather than the penalty, as the required delta leads to too many drivers being punished.

 

[Il_leone]

The Artist..... One year the Japanese GP Rosberg actually got to keep his 4th place when he should have been demoted because his dashboard instead of saying lap delta had a different message which meant he was not at fault even though he gained an advantage clearly

Even if Vettel feels hard done by , you have to ask yourself why he did not slow down further in 3rd section of the red flag zone

 

[F1Brits_90]

The Artist.....

 

[Titch]

As I am complaining about an F1 commentator I’m posting this here, especially as I am currently being tormented by said commentator on the American GP. But I have a huge issue with PDR and his copying of 007 Sean Connery, it’s a speech affectation and it drives me mad, if they keep him on Sky I may have to default to C4 on the weeks that they are showing F1. I really can’t stand it.

 

[marksawatsky]

Towards the end I thought maybe, just maybe we will get to see a little bit of life from Kimi if he wins his first race in 5 years (and maybe last F1 race ever) but nope, he was just as terrible as always. I prefer interviews with Ricciardo, no matter where he finishes. Vettel makes another mistake and spins, it's becoming a pattern. I'm not sure what Lewis or Mercedes could have done to win today, maybe pit when he was 20 seconds ahead instead of 11 seconds? Max drove well today, he really is an amazing talent

 

[Greenlantern101]

Max & RB under investigation for fuel flow.

 

[Hamberg]

Thought that was Ocon?

 

[Titch]

What nonsense have they dreamt up now.

 

[Greenlantern101]

CH4 said it was Max. Motorsport.com now saying it is Ocon and Magnussen. Whatever.

 

[Il_leone]

What frustrated me was how the tyres grip did not last and Verstappen could not get any closer to Raikkonen and Hamilton closer to Verstappen because of the aerodynamics which they have to do an issue about

 

[rufus_mcdufus]

This is what made the last few laps interesting. Lewis was on the best tyres but in the car probably most affected by dirty air. Max was on the super soft which threatened to not be optimal in the remaining laps, Kimi was on softs which looked in good nick but had quite a few laps on them. Three different strategies coming together towards the end.

 

[F1Brits_90]

marksawatsky but thats why kimi is popular which you can never explain. because of his understatedness id been disappointed otherwise, like the helmet quote, picking no7 because it was good last yr & only him could after 5 & half years since his last win, nearly decade since last Ferrari win. "yeah its better than 2nd"

assuming that ocon & magnussen will be disqualified, as ocon is same as 2014 with Riccardio & magnussen I was surprised as I thought that fuel tanks were only held 105kg & no more. also haas/grosjean are relieved because he got 3 place grid drop & 1 penalty point. if stewards had given grosjean 3pts then he would be having a week off after accumulating 12pts over a 12 month period

 

[Olivier]

Whoa, Kimi! So happy for him.